Red Dust

Thomas George “Tom” Hooper (born 1972) is a British film and television director of English and Australian heritage. Hooper began making short films at the age of 13, and had his first professional short, Painted Faces, broadcast on Channel 4 in 1992. At Oxford University Hooper directed plays and television commercials. After graduating, he directed episodes of Quayside, Byker Grove, EastEnders and Cold Feet.

Into the 2000s, Hooper directed the major BBC costume dramas Love in a Cold Climate (2001) and Daniel Deronda (2002), and was selected to helm the 2003 revival of ITV’s Prime Suspect series, starring Helen Mirren. Hooper made his feature film debut with Red Dust (2004), a South African drama starring Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Ejiofor, before directing Helen Mirren again in the Company Pictures/HBO Films historical drama Elizabeth I (2005). This began an association between Hooper and HBO; in 2006 he directed the Granada Television/HBO television film Longford and in 2007 the epic miniseries John Adams. Hooper returned to features with The Damned United (2009), a fact-based film about the English football manager Brian Clough (played by Michael Sheen). The following year saw the release of the historical drama The King’s Speech (2010), starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, which was met with critical acclaim.

Hooper’s work was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for Prime Suspect and Elizabeth I, won one for John Adams, and was nominated for the British Academy (BAFTA) TV Craft Award for Best Director for Longford. The King’s Speech won multiple awards, including Best Director wins for Hooper from the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and a Best Director nomination from BAFTA. –Wikipedia